The problem with relying on any system to provide value, is two fold. Firstly, handing the keys to someone else in regards to your happiness means you’re trading your own agency away, and secondly, even if you buy into what they tell you will make you happy, you may end up trying to live the life someone else wants you to live, instead of one that you actually want to live, leaving you hollow and dead inside without even realizing why.


Make sure you spend some time cultivating a good value system, or risk borrowing a shitty one from someone else for the rest of your soon to be miserable life

The truth of game design is usually quite evident, so when one breaks down the formula of any given title, and begins to notice the patterns that emerge, and what the feedback loop of progress entails, it becomes clear as day what kind of design one will be dealing with, and just how far that concept is going to stretch before it wears totally thin. I suppose games like “remakes” have a free pass in some regard, as they will always be able to crutch on what is a solid bedrock of formula from the get, so that certainly should take some of the edge off, one would think. Of course, this becomes a double edged sword, as when one begins to mess with the concept of idealism, and confront the notion of what perfection is, one starts to realize there was perhaps an element of bias enacted vicariously through love goggles and warm nostalgia that may have blinded someone to the reality therein.



All of that said, though I’m not directly referencing Halo: Campaign Evolved (H:CEv) by evoking such dictation upon the idea of remakes, and what may plague them, but since H:CEv falls under the umbrella of what potentially can thwart the success of any given remake, there remains some relevancy in what I say towards the game. I think recapturing the essence of the style of play involved is vital in rekindling that flame of passion once associated with the property itself, an incredibly hard prospect all on its own, but when someone has lived and breathed it for years on end and becomes overly protective of it, revisiting it even once to enact some changes makes one do a double take…but doing so a second time? One begins to wonder how much of this obsessing over refinement of “the ideal” or updating an “untouchable classic” ends up being rather spurious claims, as one begins to parse the difference between literal reference point and sugar coated bullshit enhancing the placated ego of a creator gone mad with deluded pretenses.



Some of the elements of nostalgia or the “return to what was” almost takes on a warped sense of perversion to them, when one starts to understand the difference of the terms and standards involved. As with many other similar game remakes, the most important question is what does the game mean in terms of emotional relativity. Much to that point, one looks at Campaign Evolved, and needs to ask the following to define it; what is Halo to you? Well, if the answer to that question was competitive multiplayer, then fuck your nostalgia, because revisionism has written you out of the picture…and just in time to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Halo series, no less. Glad they put the time and effort into making this as inclusive a celebration as possible for every single type of long time fan imaginable, as leaving anybody out would be a frightfully awkward tragedy, wouldn’t it just? I’m being a bit bitchy with that particular citation, but I think my series of articles on H:CEv will have been long ended before I wrap my head around shipping a Halo game, one that has the anniversary in mind, and one that is attempting to do justice to not only the original game, but the very idea of reinforcing the power of nostalgia itself, by omitting such an essential part of the franchises lineage.



Shifting gears here a little bit, I often times enjoy discussing writing and philosophy amidst the gaming chatter, as I feel it brings unique external perspective to the medium in a way in which we help it grow. When you have one topic that seemingly exists in a vacuum, there’s no room for growth or miniature evolution, without other frames of reference or nods of inclusion to those outside the realm, an ever present lack of connective tissue in bringing it all together in a more cohesive understanding. When considering how many disciplines go into the development of a video game: game theory, psychology, artistic technique, a variety of mathematically related fields, programming, writing, virtual engineering of many kinds…just to name a handful, but not even all of what can be poured into a single title, one would be making a grave error to dismiss that which is beyond gaming, and to assume they have the full picture right in front of them, one that starts with their hands on the controller, and ends at what they see on the TV screen. This, to me, would be a woeful way to experience reality, and represent a pitiful way to view the world in such an “as is” kind of way.



I think I might remain heavily dubious of H:CEv, throughout all of my time struggling to fully embrace the title for a number of reasons, of which being that I’m not sure this really feels like a return to previous glory, or an excellent retreat to starting from square one. I get an underlying sense that perhaps the reason the handling of this project, from focuses, to marketing, to delivery of content, all felt incoherent in a certain way, was because they weren’t really sure, (the collective involved, I mean), even just beyond the developers themselves, were really going for here in a sense, something akin to doing this for the wrong reasons? Seems to be quite the hard point to articulate, though often times, when something in the consumer world doesn’t quite make sense to me, or there remains some bizarre sense of obscurity in relation to a questionable quality inherent within a project, or in regards to where the decision making process is concerned, more often than not, the ultimate answer as to why what was said and done was said and done, or the confusion that it leaves in its wake there after, just ends up being as simple as “money”, thusly negating any goodwill one may have initially wrongly assumed on the behalf of all involved.



I realize that all of this comes off as inexact conjecture, and the last thing I desire to do is to come off as too vaguely constructive in my philosophical waxing for the day, but when it comes time to write some thoughts after a play session, the feels and thoughts just start pouring out, and it’s up to all involved to make some sense out of whatever comes out of it. Which is apt, given the context of the article, as I feel as if I could pretty much describe H:CEv in nearly the exact same way, and am currently in the process of doing…trying to figure it out.



Figuring stuff out can be messy, and one ends up feeling discomforted by the revealing reality that history provides through retrospective and reflection.

~Pashford